FJRForum Official 2015 Iron Butt Rally Tracking/Analysis thread

[Tyler]

C'mon 157... is that Margaret?? If it is, go girl, GOOOOO!!!

 

[Big-B]

GEN 1 forks fit on gen 2. Some of the retainer bolts do not line up.

I ran gen 1 forks on my gen 2 when I was getting the forks rebuilt at GP a couple years ago.

 

[puppychow]

Can you elaborate on 'some of the retainer bolts do not line up'? Remember these forks are going to see 7000+ miles of abuse in the next week.

 

[Auburn]

Plea for help!

We have an FJR coming in with possible bent front forks. The bike is ridable but not what you'd want to ride for 7,000 or so more miles. Looking for a Gen II that would be able to help with a possible fork swap this evening in Albuquerque.

If you're able to help please give me a call.

Derek - (218) 461-8411

eRepairables has an entire '07 up for auction tagged in Albuquerque, which means there's probably a motorcycle boneyard in near Albuquerque that is waiting for an offer to be made on the bike...

https://erepairables.com/salvage-cars-auction/motorcycles/yamaha/fjr1300/2007-yamaha-fjr1300-12370124?utm_source=daily_updates&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=targeted&utm_campaign=yamaha+fjr1300

Maybe pass the hat around?

There is a boneyard on Coors Rd named Southwest Cycles (505) 877-5272. It is at 2623 Coors Blvd SW, which is about 14 miles from the Sheraton. Call and speak to Theresa, she is a saint! Tell her that Don the Iron Butt guy sent you!

No dice. They don't have any year FJR in their yard. I have the seals and oil in my hands, I just need someone that knows how to do the job. I have never done it, and I don't know that Josh has either.

I'm going to try Steve at Motoauthority here in Albuquerque, but the plan is to be in Albuquerque around 5, do scoring, and then get his bike worked on. That's going to put him in a shop around 6, so I gotta find someone willing to stay open.

If this is something someone can walk us through, let me know. Pretty sure we need a piece of pipe to seat the seals, and I'll need that pipe size.

If you have any ideas or advice, call me ASAP @ 5oh5three six 2 zero niner two 1.

You need a 26 mm socket welded on the end of about an 18" piece of 1/2 pipe and a small 3/8" extension welded into the other end so you can get breaker bar on it to hold it while you tighten the bottom nut with an allen socket at the bottom of the fork tube.to be able to tighten everything back up. Everything else can be improvised on site.

But I thought he need to swap them because one (or both) of the tubes is bent. If that is the case he will need to swap forks with someone until the end of the rally.

 

[Big-B]

Here's an old post:

Posted 13 May 2010 - 10:41 AM

FWIW

The '05 forks work on the '06 but you have to use the axle from the Gen 1. The guides for the break lines don't match up that well though.

I ran the '05 on my '06 while I was getting my forks rebuilt at GP last month. No problems with the break lines for the short period that I ran them.

 

[stryg8r]

Sounds like Hotrodzilla came through again! The forks appear to be straight but needed seals replaced. It being put back together at this time so Josh should be able to get some rest before leg2 starts.

Thanks to everyone that volunteered assistance to help a rider in need. The offers came in from all over the county.

Derek

 

[Goodman4]

I've been enjoying watching this, too. Do any of you know how much communication tech the typical rider uses while driving? Are they looking up the spottracks of others and reading Chris's updates to make revisions, or just riding their plan?

 

[Tyler]

Sounds like Hotrodzilla came through again! The forks appear to be straight but needed seals replaced. It being put back together at this time so Josh should be able to get some rest before leg2 starts.
Thanks to everyone that volunteered assistance to help a rider in need. The offers came in from all over the county.

Derek

Out of likes for today so just posting... LIKE!! B)

 

[dcarver]

Gotta give the Zilla props...

 

[Mudslide Miller]

Nice Job AGAIN AJ. You rock. Looks like you'll be doing the next tech day!!

 

[Twigg]

I've been enjoying watching this, too. Do any of you know how much communication tech the typical rider uses while driving? Are they looking up the spottracks of others and reading Chris's updates to make revisions, or just riding their plan?

Typically most riders will have a couple of GPS units for their own navigation, and a smartphone hooked to their helmets for making and receiving calls. They will mostly have either mp3 music, satellite radio or a combination, and some will have CB radio.

Most will have the ability to look at the public spot page, or their friend's pages if they have the links. Some wil have family at home watching their own spot and the public page, and they have access to the daily reports.

However, out side routing help is strictly forbidden, and as far as I know riders do not generally break those rules. In any event, most will simply be concentrating on the route they planned, and trying to make it happen. If they re-route at all it will because they built contingencies into their own plan.

The IBR really is not the place to be relying on routing tips from others. These folk know what they are doing, and they just get on with it letting the chips fall where they will.

 

[airboss]

Mr. Fixit.

Damn Zilla, you're good.

 

[Ignacio]

I've been enjoying watching this, too. Do any of you know how much communication tech the typical rider uses while driving? Are they looking up the spottracks of others and reading Chris's updates to make revisions, or just riding their plan?

It varies. 100 different riders--100 different answers. I'm sure just about everybody has a smartphone, can get e-mail, and/or surf if needed. The number of people that may surf e-mail with family and friends while on the road will be a subset and even fewer are going to be monitoring social media while riding. A few really enjoy it...as long as they're staying safe. Others like to talk to friends via bluetooth headset over a cell phone.

Myself? I was totally watching this thread in 2013 on straight stretches, lurking so nobody could see me, and half laughing at the fantasy people were speculating about while also wanting to give virtual high-fives at insights people ferreted out. Texting a few family members and close friends to just talk...and often not about riding. Always conversation would stay away from them telling me details about the rally and I'd even shun them giving me weather reports....I'd watching doppler radar on my phone or GPS that was probably better anyway. I also found out that I was in the lead from reading a Higdon report at the same time I was bummed my good friend Eric had low-sided.

At the same time I don't think anything I saw on the aggregate page or other public sources really changed any of my riding plan.

 

[wfooshee]

Just now got around to reading the dailies on the IBR site. One line hit me very strongly from the first report:

"More people have circumnavigated the Earth in space than have finished The World’s Toughest Motorcycle Rally ™."

Dayum!!!

 

[Shuey]

Well, as I watched the SPOT map over the past 3 hours (off and on) it looks like there were more than a few late arrivals soaking up penalty points. Hard to tell from the delays built in to the SPOT updates if anyone DNFed that was showing on the map.

But . . . have I got this right?

If a rider's only goal is to be an IBR finisher and doesn't care about where on the finishers list they get listed then . . . points don't matter. The strategy would be to pick up the easy boni and insure you get them from at least 25 states AND, they'd have an extra 2 hours of riding time in each leg since penalty points are meaningless! Good rest every night, maybe arrive at checkpoints and the finish early to get through scoring before the rush and relax at the bar with something cool and refreshing to watch the big dogs ride in.

Really? What am I missing?

Shuey

 

[Phil Tarman]

When I rode the ET Highway for the Team Lyle Rachel Days Insanity in the middle of May, it was in excellent condition.

 

[Uncle Hud]

HotRodZilla is THE MAN!! Now get Mr. Mountain some sleep so he and his FJR can Kick ***!

 

[gixxerjasen]

Leg 1 map video complete.



Nothing like looking over at the laptop and there's a big window up wanting to know if I want to install updates.

"****! How long has that been there?!?!?! How many frames have I lost?" Oops, my kid is in the room. Disable updates, close window. Lost only about 5 frames, meaning it'd been up 30 minutes.

Here's hoping that's done and nothing happens to it while I'm out of town.

 

[Twigg]

Really? What am I missing?

Shuey

You are not missing anything at all. You have it exactly right in terms of the rules of this Rally.

The only thing I would say is this. While many riders will have few pretensions to a win, or a podium place, riding the base route of this rally to get the 50 Parks and 25 States is still a pretty tough ride for most. Very few will want to simply do that, and it's not any kind of fun to be collecting penalties at every checkpoint.

As a matter of pride I would expect all of them to want to put up as good a showing as they can, there remains the Medal point scores to be announced too.

So I think that even the riders who plot a modest, or conservative route to secure a finish would still like to amass as many points as they think it safe to aim for.

The riders who encounter problems might be the ones who simply ride for a finish having had to abandon much of a plan part way to avoid a DNF.

 

[Shuey]

For the IBR, Daylight is, I believe, Sunrise to Sunset + or - 1 hour.

Edit ... I missed part of your question ... No, they cannot miss the 10 pm deadline. If they are not in by 10 they will DNF.

Daylight isn't tied to the clock. If objects in the picture background are visible with unaided (think street lights, whatever) natural light things like, trees, buildings, etc. it's daylight. Example . . . high clouds on the western horizon at sunset could extend your "day" a little bit with the reflected light. No clouds and a chill in the air, night time drops like a curtain.

Shuey